welcome to our extended coverage of 9news tracking hurricane sandy. >> the storm made landfall not far from atlantic city in the last hour. here's what else we can tell you tonight. the federal government will be closed again tomorrow, as will most school systems in our area including d.c., alexandria and fairfax. prince george's, charles, frederick and montgomery county schools. you can see the full list at www.wusa9.com. >> also all flights at local airports are canceled until further notice and vre, marc rail and amtrak have canceled service for tomorrow. metro will not have service in the rning. >> in maryland the speed limit on all interstates is being lowered to 45 miles an hour as a precaution. maryland state police urge everyone to just stay off the

roads if at all possible. >> now we're also hearing about evacuation orders for parts of the huntington area of fairfax county. this impacts people living along fenwick drive and arlington terrace. you may remember the huntington neighborhood has been prone to flooding before. we've got a crew heading that way. we'll bring you a live report as soon as possible. let's get the latest where the storm is right now from topper. >> she's essentially sitting in southern new jersey now right between ocean city, new jersey, and also cape may. maximum established winds 90 miles per hour, gusts to 115 and we're looking at oddly enough, we talked about this a little bit at least behind the scenes that some of the hurricane force winds now are actually south of the track as opposed to north of the track. we'll keep an eye on that as we go through the next several hours. it's starting to get critical. let's talk about wind gusts. for more on that here's

meteorologist erica grow. >> that's right. you can see where the wind gusts are strongest now, 55 miles per hour at dca. the center of the storm is right about here. it's just made landfall in ocean county, new jersey or cape may county, new jersey i should say and the strongest winds according to the national hurricane center are basically where my hand is just to the south of the center of the storm. so we're expecting the strongest winds to move across the delmarva peninsula within the next couple hours. they will start to make their way in. this storm will slowly make its way across the delmarva, across maryland and toward the d.c. metro area overnight tonight. that's why the strongest winds are expected to move in as we head into the overnight hours and that's why we have some strong wind gusts right now, but we're expecting stronger ones to move in later on tonight. right now 45 miles an hour in baltimore, 49 miles an hour in annapolis, 53 miles per hour in winchester and 54 in leesburg.

so those winds are very strong and gusty already. 54 miles per hour in pax river. we expect the winds to end up somewhere in the 60, maybe even 70-mile an hour range for peak wind gusts heading into the overnight hours. when you have the winds, you have the waves. that's why we have 16-foot waves off the coast of virginia beach, 18-foot waves about parallel to the ocean city coastline and up towards rehoboth and lewis and you can see some other wind gusts here. 53 miles an hour is the peak wind gust being reported at dover air force base. >> the waves down a little bit. i guess that westerly wind is doing its thing now, but still -- >> 67 miles an hour. >> just off the coast of rehoboth about 15 miles or so. temperatures, we're in the 40s to around 50. look at oakland 32. you jump the divide it's a whole other world.

49 in fredericksburg with 46 in manassas and gaithersburg. i'm not going to show you a wind chill map. massive amounts of moisture and rain rolling. in we have actually saw a picture on facebook in martinsburg. there's flooding in martinsburg. they had 5 inches of rain, ooding in south central pennsylvania in fulton and franklin county and another batch of rain will continue to move across the bay into the metro area. so local impact, leesburg, we're looking at critical times now through 2 p.m., 70 mile-per- hour wind not out of the question, frederick a 75 mile- per-hour wind looking more and more likely. you're critical until 2 p.m., 3 to 6 inches of rain. you've already had about 4. fairfax and the district up to 70 miles per hour as well, rainfall 3 to 7 inches, critical now between 2 p.m. again tomorrow and la plata in southern maryland 65 miles per hour, but you get into extreme southern maryland into st. mary's county. we just saw a wind gust st.

mary's city of 63 miles per hour and the big winds aren't even here yet, rainfall 4 to 8 inches, some areas from annapolis and across the bay could see as much as 12, general range of 5 to 10 inches for annapolis and you certainly will have a wind gust in excess of 74 miles per hour. the doppler radar, here's the next batch of heavy rain. we still have at least one more heavy band to go through. that will dump another couple inches on top of already anywhere from 4 to 6 inches. heaviest band now up 270, either side. now we see this band rotating a bit across the river. this is going to get into fairfax and loudoun county shortly. she's going to be a historic storm. there is no doubt about that. a critical time between now and noon tomorrow, maybe we extend that a little bit north and west of town. damaging winds 45 to 75 miles per hour and, well, already seeing the street and river flooding. that's already going on.

let's talk about a couple other things real quickly. we're looking at shingles off roofs. political signs will be gone. street flooding and downed trees and limbs. emphasize we'd like you to sleep on the lower level tonight, not on the top floor and stay away from windows. did you answer that question on facebook? >> i did. i got questions from people on facebook who live in apartment homes, upper floors, have a loft and wanted to know what they do. the message to them is also go to an inch tractor trailer room. stay away from windows -- go to an interior room, stay away from windows. >> sort of treat is like a tornado drill. let's go back to bruce johnson at rehoboth beach where it's been getting worse and worse. >> now he's in the water. where are you, bruce?

>> reporter: hi, guys. i was just trying to figure out wham i going to say this time around -- what am i going to say this time around and here comes donna walking down the board walk. tell me your impression. >> starting to get a lot worse now. i came out around 2:00 to see it, knew it was going to get back and i came back at this time to see and it's definitely worse. >> reporter: donna is a famous chef at the cultured pearl restaurant here. have you seen anything like this? >> never seen it like this before especially coming up on the boardwalk this early when it's not even high tide. never seen it before. >> reporter: have a lot of people in the area taken shelter? >> yes, they have. i'm local and stayed this time. very some friends that did, too but most of the people did leave. >> reporter: i'm glad you stayed, too because now i got somebody to interview. we both agree it's starting to get a lot worse. the eye hasn't come upon shore

cape may. it's going to get a lot worse. >> i truly believe it's going to get a lot worse. >> reporter: you're going to hunker down, right? >> yes, i am. >> reporter: thanks for stopping. we haven't seen high tide and that's important because now these waves are about 17 feet. high tide will add to that. then when the hurricane surge comes in, it's going to push this water higher. i think somebody pointed to the fact it's going to come up pretty high on this pole here. exempt for me and donna there is -- except for me and donna there is nobody else on the boardwalk. there is some erosion. the beach has been torn away because of the waves coming in. there's sand on the boardwalk. because of this with the winds coming from the west moving this way there will probably be a lot less beach erosion than people had feared before, but people are bracing, still preparing for the worst hoping for the best. this will probably be the last ti that we can actually come down to the beach because of

high tide, at least come out this far. we don't know really what's going to happen when sandy gets here. we know the bull's eye will be over across the delaware bay, cape may. we'll feel the brunt of the storm here. how much exactly, we're not sure at this point. we'll wait and see. this is nothing like irene. it was a tropical storm, warm and it was just water. we may get the wind here. we may get some property damage and people here are bracing for some power outages. so that's about it for now. we're fortunate. for irene we actually had a tornado, haven't had anything like that in terms of property damage. lots of flooding that we've shown you. you showed the viewers footage from dewey beach, lots of that type flooding throughout the area because of all the water in coastal delaware, over 50,000 people ordered out, evacuations. it's a lot more than that now because a lot of people have left on their own. >> we'd like to see bruce a bit

closer in. >> someone was giving him grief for being in a shelter earlier. we won't do that ever again. we also saw pictures out of atlantic city where the storm actually went ashore. you have entire sections of the boardwalk atlantic city washed out to the ocean, haven't seen anything like that. >> it's a powerful storm. we always tell crews in the field on days like this safety is their top priority. here's why. cbs' chip reid is in ocean city covering the storm. he and his camera crew were taken out by a rogue wave. we're told everybody is okay and they were able to save the camera, too, but when bruce johnson and kristin fisher and all our other colleagues out by the beach talk about the significance and the power of that storm and how quickly it can take you, you could see by that video it illustrates that point. >> feet and feet above the other waves. let's talk about power outages which have been going up and up. russ ptacek is checking those

us for us with the different utilities. >> just since i last spoke to you, 40,000 more outages. on twitter you'll see these numbers that came out about five minutes ago, 138,000 now without power. bge reporting 66,000, pepco 20,000, dominion -- this is the biggest change -- 43,000 dominion customers without power, novak 1,649, smeco 4,326 and rappahannock about 3,000. let's look at dominion. that is the biggest change. those numbers may have doubled since we last spoke. here is one, this big interesting at the end of fairfax you see the x. x marks the spot. that big red spot means more than 2,500 customers in that zip code are without power. then these other areas that are dots, those indicate outages,

also, but that x marking the spot would be the single largest outage right in the x in fairfax. let's take a look at the current numbers in bge. now at 66,000 customers and we can look at the map, also, and you'll see in our area bowie, laurel, a lot of outages there. let's move over to pepco very quickly. pepco also those areas coloring in. we'll move into those areas and see on that i pulled up which is area code 2002 and on, just 236 in that area, but overall at pepco alone more than 20,000 customers without power. so now we are well over 100,000 customers in the area without power. >> all right, russ, thanks for keeping us up to date. we're looking at these numbers already and we're not even in the -- we're in the critical time, but we have a lot more

time to go. >> it is great with that interactive map with the red area you can see where things are concentrated and it's so much more immediate than anything we had before. >> of course, we have to be parent because the utilities can't -- patient because the utilities can't even go out until the winds calm down until it's safe enough for the crews to get out and do it safely. a large uprooted tree caused serious damage to a couple houses in northwest washington a couple hours ago in the 5300 block of nebraska avenue. one of the homes has since been condemned. did you see those roots there? fortunately the two people in the house were not hurt. the tree damaged the roof also of a neighbor's house. the three people in the second home also escaped unharmed. >> we are back in a moment with more on hurricane sandy. stay with us.

thousands and thousands of people already using the 9 news text alerts to take up to date on closings, outages and rising waters. text sandy to 25543. there will be directions how to sign up for our mobile app. you can watch us streaming live on our mobile site in case your power goes out. >> we've got plenty of tools to help you do all that.

>> we're going back to topper now giving us an update on these record setting winds. >> fient 8 mile-per-hour wind is the highest -- 98 mile-per- hour wind is the highest wind gust recorded at national in 1954. 60 mile-per-hour wind was irene last year in august. now a 58 mile-per-hour wind with isabel in september of '03. we had the blizzard and isabel in '03. 75 mile-per-hour winds with the derecho a while ago. now sandy so far has a 55 mile- per-hour wind gust. so she's closing in on isabel and i think this is going to probably go above 65 miles per hour. don't think it will make hazel, but it looks like it could be our second highest wind gust recorded. that's saying something. look at the wind, essentially

northwest, gaithersburg, d.c., manassas, a 52 mile-per-hour wind gust now in winchester and martinsburg and leesburg. we're looking at a 49 mile-per- hour wind gust at patuxent river. winds are getting dangerously high everywhere. temperatures 40 to 50. these temperatures will keep going down. some of the burbs will be in the 30s tonight, 46 in leesburg now and gaithersburg, 50 downtown and upper 40s into southern maryland. the latest radar will show this last the band of rain rolling through. we've upped our rainfall amounts a bit. this is hammering the entire metro area up 95, also into southern sections of pennsylvania and now extending across the western half of pennsylvania. they, too will get probably 3 to 6 inches of rain. so leesburg, you're critical now through 2 p.m. tomorrow, winds gust to 70 miles per hour. frederick winds to gust to 75 miles per hour. you are critical now until 2 p.m.

tomorrow as well. fairfax, the district, well, up to 70 miles per hour. i think just below hurricane force winds and it's critical between now and 2 p.m. la plata, 70 mile-per-hour wind gusts looking more and more likely 4 to 8 inches of rain. you go farther south and you'll find anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of rain through st. mary's county and also calvert county. annapolis will have hurricane force wind, critical now between now and about 2 p.m. tomorrow, rainfall amounts 10 inches. stay away from windows. go to interior rooms. sleep on a lower level, if you can. if you're an apartment building, just stay away from the windows. highest wind 40 to 75 miles per hour, critical time now through 2 p.m. and again sandy essentially made landfall across southern jersey between cape may and ocean city, new jersey. she'll continue her west,

northwest trek over the nighttime hours as our winds increase. >> thank you, topper. check out this video from the u.s. coastguard of a rescue off the coast of north carolina today. 14 members of the crew of the hms bounty were pulled from the water. two were missing. one has since been found. she was unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital. the coastguard is still searching for the final missing crew member, the captain. the replica tall ship sank off the coast of north carolina this morning and nose -- those are the dramatic pictures. engineers are racing to the top of a 74 story high rise because of a dangling construction crane hanging over 57 streets in manhattan. no word what caused the crane to become loose. new york city mayor michael bloomberg said all construction cranes were already inspected before the storm. meterologists believe winds are

blowing around 95 miles per hour. so you could see how something like that could break. >> apparently that was connected to some luxury building that was being built there. we're back with more in a moment on hurricane sandy.

our facebook page is great place to get even more information and we are posting your pictures, questions and comments right now, neighbor.com/wusa9. >> we've got plenty of tools to help you stay connected even when you lose your power. our kristen berset is in the newsroom with simon landau and they're going to talk about ways you can do all this. >> that's right, ladies. it's really easy. it's even more important you download our mobile site and know where to go for that important information. simon, it's really easy to get the mobile site up. >> really easy and we keep reiterating this because as power does go down, we want you to be able to follow us on our mobile site and app. log onto your smartphone if you have one of those. download our mobile app from the app store or go to m for

mobile.wusa9.com. this screen will come up on your mobile device. you can click for live coverage of our sandy coverage. >> make sure your phones and computers are charged, but if you go to our page, wusa9.com, all the important information you need is there, all the closings and also we've got the power company emergency numbers on our homepage. if you're experiencing a power outage, have a tree down, we've got all the information to call there on our homepage. i want to show you something interesting. on a trend map for twitter, look along the east coast, really no surprise because of sandy but everybody is tweeting sandy. you've got sandy d.c., governor martin o'malley. up in new york you have the train collapse. some are tweeting apocalypse. we're not that bad, but sandy is trending up and down the east coast. one more thing, really interesting, our sports producer kevin jones put this together. look at this comparison between

irene and sandy and just the size difference in these two storms. you've heard topper talk about the immense winds and how far it's been stretched out over the east coast. you can see here with that size difference. we want to ask you, our viewers, there's so much going on out there, you guys have been great sending us videos and pictures. please keep them coming. you can e-mail them to wusa9- web production at www.wusa9.com. we'll have some of those coming up later in our extended coverage of sandy. ladies, back to you in the studio. i'm looking at a picture on our wusa9 facebook page from robert mcdonnell who is out grilling from sandy. he sent a picture of himself grilling. >> all right, robert, grilling time will be over real soon. >> we'll be back in a moment.